The United States has stepped up pressure on Middle East allies to expel the Wagner Group, a military contractor with close ties to Russia’s president, from chaos-stricken Libya and Sudan, where it expanded in recent years, regional officials told The Associated Press.

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni finalised a tour of North African countries by sealing an $8bn gas production deal between the Italian energy company Eni and Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) on Sunday.

In its obsession to keep migrants and asylum seekers away from its shores, Italy is paying for tens of thousands of people to be intercepted and returned to Libya, where they face abuses that the UN describes as possible crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on Wednesday.

The Chief of the General Staff of the Libyan Army, Mohammed Al-Haddad, has discussed with Italian military officials joint cooperation in the maritime and air sectors and various fields of training.

The Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah said the gas agreement between the National Oil Corporation (NOC) and Italy’s Eni was signed in 2008 and his Government of National Unity (GNU) has only activated it after all these years.

American diplomatic sources in Cairo revealed the details of the two-day visit of US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, during which he met his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shoukry, and President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Al-Araby newspaper said.

Libya’s Tripoli-based government has held talks with Ukraine to discuss the possibility of military cooperation between the two sides, particularly on safeguarding maritime and air borders, Anadolu News Agency reports.

Mohamed Aoun, the Minister of Oil and Gas in the current Tripoli-based government led by Prime Minister Abd Alhamid Aldabaiba, rejected on Saturday the Eni deal signed on the same day with Libya. He said it bypassed his Oil Ministry and cabinet approval and changed the deal signed in 2008.

A group of graduates of oil colleges from the western region closed the gas pipeline linking (Mellitah to Italy) on Saturday because the recent employment lists issued by the National Oil Corporation (NOC) did not include them.

National Commission for Human Rights in Libya (NCHRL), has rejected converting Libya into large detention center for migrants to protect Europe.